Ucf Panel's Top Subject Is Teaching

Proposals Grade Faculty By Using Uniform Method

June 23, 1986|By Laura Ost of The Sentinel Staff

After several months of debating ways to improve undergraduate education, a University of Central Florida committee appears ready to recommend a method of faculty evaluation that would put more emphasis on teaching.

The idea is to develop a uniform method of evaluating faculty that would stress effective teaching and help teachers who have problems correct them.

The committee is part of UCF President Trevor Colbourn's effort to improve the university. That effort also includes a long-range planning council expected to begin meeting in the fall.

Among tentative proposals by the Ad-Hoc Undergraduate Education Advisory Committee:

-- More consistent methods of faculty evaluation, requiring departments to establish the rules by majority vote, subject to approval by the dean, academic vice president and undergraduate advisory committee.

-- A new form for students to evaluate faculty, asking for comments and suggestions instead of numerical ratings. Also, forms would be distributed in half of all classes, rather than one class per faculty member.

-- Requirements that department chairmen discuss annual reviews and set goals with faculty members and that there be an appeal system for disputed reviews.

-- A requirement that comments be solicited from 10 alumni for each teacher being considered for tenure.

-- Policies stating that new students will not be accepted without adequate classroom space and that use of part-time faculty members will be reduced.

The 16-member committee, made up mainly of faculty members, has yet to vote on final recommendations, which must be approved by top administrators and the Faculty Senate before implementation.

Any new evaluation system is likely to require a lot more time and effort from everyone involved, but committee chairman Charlie Micarelli said it will be worth it.

''When this thing is all done I hope it's very clear that the main thing around here is good teaching,'' said Micarelli, vice president for undergraduate studies, a new position created last fall.

Some UCF faculty members and students complain that too much emphasis is placed on research. Part of the reason has been inconsistent evaluation of teaching.

Sometimes chairmen and faculty members observe classes. Some departments solicit opinions of alumni at tenure time and some have an appeal system for reviews. All rely on student evaluations, but how much depends on the chairman, who may or may not discuss reviews with faculty members.

Finding a better way is not easy, because there are many options and opinions and none are ideal.

Derek Bok, president of Harvard University, said recently that higher education's greatest need is a better way to evaluate teaching. Harvard plans a faculty seminar to study current methods and come up with a new one.

At Rollins College, faculty members are reviewed by peers and every course ends with a student evaluation. The college recently switched from numerical to narrative evaluations on the theory they are fairer and more informative.

''One of my general theories about this issue is that teaching is an art, it is very difficult to evaluate and you have to be very sensitive when you evaluate it,'' said Dan DeNicola, academic vice president at Rollins.

''The worst thing that can happen is a kind of oversimplication. People know good teaching when they see it. It's when you go to document it that distortions can occur.''

The evaluations provide feedback to teachers and are read by review committees and DeNicola. But they are not turned into course guides for students, which are published at other schools such as the University of Miami.

At Miami's School of Education and Allied Professions, teachers report on accomplishments and goals every year, and each person is evaluated by others in the department. Reviews are discussed with chairmen, who make recommendations to the dean.

The evaluation handbook is 54 pages, and the process is time-consuming.

''We think faculty development is very important,'' explained Lou Kleinman, the dean.

Miami uses numerical student evaluations. The same is true at Florida State University, which in fall classes distributes one-page questionnaires developed at Michigan State University and used by colleges around the country.

The system allows faculty to be compared with national norms, but FSU makes internal comparisons only, said Steve Edwards, dean of the faculty. Teachers' ratings are compared with others in their department and others of their rank, for example.

''We've been doing it many years,'' Edwards said. ''Like all of those things, there are all sorts of things that one can say is wrong with it. There just isn't a perfect system for doing it.''

The form makes 26 statements such as ''The instructor seemed to be interested in teaching.'' The student picks one of five answers ranging from strongly agree, or 1, to strongly disagree, or 5.